Mystery HTC phone runs Android Nougat, coming October – report

A mysterious HTC smartphone is expected to be HTC’s first phone to run Android Nougat straight out of the box.

The HTC Bolt, which has appeared in recent leaks but has yet to have its existence officially confirmed, will reportedly feature Android 7.0 Nougat as default. The handset is said to be being developed under the codename ‘Acadia’, and will be available in selected European, Middle Eastern, and African countries. That’s according to prominent HTC ROM developer LlabTooFeR, who posted the following message to Twitter:

https://twitter.com/statuses/784150975972016128

The HTC Bolt was leaked back in September, when prolific tipster and journalist Evan Blass posted an image of the device on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/statuses/778481006454120448

The handset appears to resemble the HTC 10, which its metal build and front-facing fingerprint scanner. Unfortunately, details on hardware are still thin on the ground, so we’ve no idea whether the Bolt will be top-end, mid-range, or budget. As well as an EMEA release, we’ve also heard rumours that US carrier Sprint is going to sell the HTC Bolt in the states.

If the rumours are true, the Bolt will be the first HTC phone to run Android 7.0 Nougat. Technically, the new Google Pixel will actually be the first HTC-built phone to run Nougat, but the Pixel devices aren’t HTC branded; HTC was merely a manufacturing partner.

In any case, take this report – and all previous leaks – with due caution. HTC still hasn’t confirmed any official details about a new handset.

Android Nougat was released back in August on Nexus devices, and is the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system. Notable changes include a split-screen mode, support for Vulkan graphics, and battery life improvements via an enhanced ‘Doze’ standby mode.

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